Audacity Forum

Hi all,
I have searched the forum but did not find an answer:
Are the Project files of 1.2.6 and 1.3.9 compatible?
The help states that I can use both versions on one machine, but not if I can open project files with both versions (especially opening project files saved with 1.3.9 in version 1.2.6).

Thanks in advance!

Micha

You can't open a 1.3.9 project in 1.2.6.

You can open a 1.2.6 project in 1.3.9, but if you then save that project in 1.3.9, it becomes a 1.3.9 project and you can't open it in 1.2.6.

You can have both versions of Audacity on the one machine but you can only have one of them running at any time.

PO'L

Okay, thanks for the clarification.
So project files are upwards compatible, but not downwards.
This sounds okay.

This begs the question of whether you should be using Projects at all. No, probably not. People keep Saving Projects thinking they are getting sound files and they're not. Audacity doesn't save sound files. If you want a standard, stable sound file that you can archive, back up, or email to your mum, you have to Export one.

I use Audacity a lot both home and at work and I've never Saved a Project yet, except to explain to people what a bad idea it is.

There is a place for Projects. If you're recutting the Sound Of Music or recording all seven layers of an Andrews Sisters song with your voice and keyboard, then yes, Projects are for you. If, however, you're transferring your vinyl to Music CD or capturing simple sounds for cell phone ring tones, Projects are a waste of time and can, in a lot of cases, be dangerous.

Koz

Okay, I am doing home recording; several layers for the different instruments, and until I'm done, I think I need the projects.
When I'm done, I export the resulting, mixed sound file to mp3, wav or whatever.

M_Meyer wrote:Okay, I am doing home recording; several layers for the different instruments, and until I'm done, I think I need the projects.

Correct. This is a good example of where using projects is a good idea. Otherwise you have to export each track of your project separately to its own WAV file and then reconstruct it later to reassemble the project - too much hard work, not a good idea.

Just be careful. As Koz says projects can become brittle and break in careless hands. Just don't move any of the files that make up your project around, to different folders, or rename or delete them. And be aware that if you are using imported audio clips - the default setting in Audacity is to not actually copy the audio clip in but rather create a link to it. Moving/deleting the source audio (by demounnting a souce CD say) will then damage the project.

You can reset to the "Safer" option whereby audio clips are actually copied in from Edit > Preferences > Import/Export

WC

The "imported audio file" settings is a good tip - I will check the setting.
For the project itself, I will keep all project files together - they are in one folder anyways, no need to copy/move/rename single files.

The AUP file isn't music. It's a surgically correct, detailed list of what and where your music is. That's why if you change anything at all for any of the components or any of the files, there is no show.

Poof gone.

The compulsives will tell you that you can fix a damaged show one of two ways. You can either put all your files and names back exactly the way they were before you moved them, or you can -- with strong coffee -- open up the AUP file in a text editor (NotePad, WordPad, TextEdit) and change it so it can find the new files and locations.

You can do that. That is perfectly valid and there are postings here of people that have revived a damaged show that way.

http://kozco.com/tech/audacity/aup1.jpg

This is a very simple aup file captured as a graphic. I added spaces and blank lines for clarity. Note in about line 7 (and again in line 17), there is a directory and filename -- piano2.wav. If I change that name or move the file, I have no show.

Koz